Dear Frederick County Board of Education,

This petition is a demand from students, families, and community members of Frederick County to change the name of Governor Thomas Johnson High School. 

How can our Board of Education declare that Black Lives Matter when one of our schools is named after a slave owner? Thomas Johnson owned dozens of enslaved Black people, many of whom likely lived and worked on the very grounds on which TJ stands today. He tore apart families and communities by selling enslaved people to the deep South. His abuse and mistreatment of the enslaved people who worked for him was horrible enough to drive some enslaved people to risk their lives in escaping to the North. Today, Black children make up thousands of the students in Frederick’s public schools—nearly a quarter of TJ’s population, specifically—and yet the person we choose to honor and celebrate for their school is someone who profited off of and advocated for the enslavement of their ancestors.

The fact is, white supremacy is still a foundation of our nation, and Frederick is not immune. Black folks still struggle today to overcome the obstacles faced by their ancestors while still being policed, discriminated against, and harmed today. If FCPS truly wanted to take a stand against white supremacy and for its Black students and students of color, then it would stop celebrating and honoring a slave owner.

This is not a call to erase history. In fact, it is a call to stop telling fake stories and get to the real history. Maryland’s first governor thought it was okay to enslave human beings for the color of their skin. Any achievement he made, any development for Frederick County and its (white) residents, was done off of the uncompensated labor of Black people who he owned. To say that his ideals were “moral” or “okay” at the time ignores the voices of the hundreds of thousands of enslaved Black people who resisted, revolted, and decried the torture of their enslavement.

Schools are not named after people to preserve history, they are named after people to honor and celebrate their values. We refuse to continue celebrating a person who thought it was okay to own and control Black people. As such, Governor Thomas Johnson High School must be renamed.

Sincerely,

Students, Graduates, and Residents of Frederick County

Sources:

https://www.fcps.org/about/news/1682453/statement-from-the-board-of-education​

https://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2013/11/13/record-of-slave-sale-by-1st-md-governor-exhibited/​

https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/education/schools/public_k-12/high_school/governor_thomas_johnson/school-notes-in-addressing-gov-thomas-johnson-name-change-discussion-too-many-refuse-to-confront/article_87814eba-f404-5299-9829-4068926c7bf6.html​

https://www.fredericknewspost.com/opinion/letter_to_editor/thomas-johnson-not-appropriate-for-a-schools-name/article_fdedeffe-21e7-56cf-b547-6e06b744bbe4.html

Relevant Articles:

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2017/11/09/removing-racist-monuments-is-about-making-history-not-erasing-it/​

https://www.npr.org/2017/08/20/544266880/confederate-statues-were-built-to-further-a-white-supremacist-future